Design is one of the significant intellectual activities of human beings and is therefore inevitably influenced by culture, which as Hofstede describes, influences ‘all aspects of human life’. Product design, which emerged in the middle of the last century and is developing under the background of globalization, is a relatively young domain in the design area and also unavoidably a topic of interest in the field of culture study. This thesis brings forth a perspective on the need for an examination of product design in a cross-cultural context. Product design in this research was decomposed into two main components: the design outcome and design process. Two empirical studies were conducted to investigate the cultural differences from the perspective of design outcome. The technique of repertory grid analysis, applied in interviews with participants from the UK and China, found distinctive attributes of designs created by student designers. The designs from the UK students tended to have rounded shapes, simple structures, fewer functions and less creativity; whereas the designs from the Chinese student designers tended to have squarer shapes, more complex structures, more functions and greater creativity. Notable differences were also found in the criteria of design evaluation: people from the UK and China had different emphases on aesthetics, ergonomics and creativity. The differences in design evaluation were validated with a larger sample size using an online survey. Differences in design process were also revealed by two empirical studies that investigated the design activities of designers from the two cultures. A study using a post-hoc reflective method was conducted to analyse submissions from design students, supplemented with an ethnographic observation of daily design activities in a studio. Differences were found in the patterns of design process as well as in the design cognitions revealed through the design representations. UK students were found to sketch more and used sketching as a means of recording, presenting and generating ideas, whereas Chinese students tended to sketch less and used sketching more as a tool for recording and presenting ideas. Chinese students also showed an obvious tendency towards considering a design task in a relational-contextual way, i.e. they tended to consider the relationships between different themes. The differences were confirmed in a protocol study with design practitioners, in which experienced designers were asked to design a condiment stand and subsequently explain their process. UK designers were found to be design-attributes oriented, whereas Chinese designers were more use-environment oriented. Also, compared to their UK counterparts, the design processes of the Chinese designers tended to be more simplified. The differences found in the perspectives of design process and design outcome can be attributed to cultural differences addressed by cultural models such as those from Hofstede. The literature on the cognitive differences between the UK and China also suggested deep-rooted reasons for the relevant differences, such as the analytic cognitive style of UK people and the holistic style of Chinese people, which make them have different focus on interpreting things. The findings of this research offer valuable information in guiding product design activities taking place in the UK / China or any other similar cultures in two ways: 1) the differences in design evaluation criteria offer valuable references to design practice in the relevant markets, i.e. different emphases on the aspects of aesthetics, ergonomics and creativity should be taken when designing for the relevant market; 2) the differences found in design cognition and patterns in design process also provide valuable information: a) for design education, it suggests that Chinese design students should be encouraged to use sketching as a tool for thinking and generating ideas and also to present more of their cognitive process, so as to develop more structured thinking processes to facilitate design; b) for collaborative design practice in a multi-cultural environment, which is typical of today’s product industry, it suggests an integration of different views of designers during early design stage to make more thorough investigation of the design problem, and also a more flexible management in the idea developing stage to fit with the different cognitive styles of the designers.

Incorporating recycled tyre rubber into flexible pavement applications by means of Recycled Tyre Rubber-Modified Bitumen RTR-MBs would solve a serious waste problem, save energy and materials, and enhance pavement life and performance. On the other hand, the excessive high-temperature viscosity of rubberised binders imposes handling difficulties during the mixing and compaction process. Therefore, producing rubberised binders with acceptable high-temperature viscosity, and equally having desirable mechanical properties that are truly reflected in asphalt mixtures, was the main aim of this study. Three different types of recycled tyre rubber, with two different base bitumens, were selected to produce different combinations of rubberised binders. The three different sources of recycled tyre rubber are; (1) normal ambiently produced tyre rubber (2) cryogenically produced tyre rubber that was pre-treated with Warm Mix Additive (Sasobit®) in order to reduce the high-temperature viscosity of rubberised binders and (3) normal ambiently produced recycled tyre rubber containing 20% devulcanised rubber. The two base bitumens were selected with large differences in their physical and rheological properties in order to identify the effect of the base bitumen on the interaction mechanism and the final rubberised bitumen properties; a hard base bitumen with a penetration of 40 dmm and a soft bitumen with a penetration of 200 dmm were, therefore, chosen. The laboratory experimental design has been divided into three main parts in order to accomplish the main objectives of the study; Part 1: Optimise the blending variables (temperature and time) based on the rheological characteristics of binders. This was carried out through low shear mixing by using the Brookfield Viscometer with a modified Dual Helical Impeller (DHI). The blending variables (temperature and time) were investigated based on their influence on measurements of the linear and nonlinear viscoelastic properties. The rheological measurements including dynamic mechanics analysis (DMA) and Multiple Stress Creep Recovery (MSCR) tests were conducted using the Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR). Part 2: Manufacture the rubberised bitumens by using the Silverson L4RT High Shear Mixer based on the optimised blending variables that were identified from Part 1. The produced rubberised bitumens in addition to their base bitumens were characterised for their fatigue and rutting properties. Different test methods were used to evaluate the fatigue and rutting resistance of binders. The fatigue testing involved the SHRP parameter, Time Sweep tests and the essential work of fracture using the double-edged notched tension (DENT) test. The dissipated energy approach was used to characterise the fatigue properties of binders. The effect of artificial ageing (short and long term ageing) was also investigated. The rutting testing involved the SHRP parameter, Shenoy Parameter, Zero Shear Viscosity, and non-recoverable compliance Jnr from the MSCR test. Part 3: A typical stone mastic gradation (10mm) suitable for surface courses was selected from the British specification BS EN 13108-5/ PD 6691:2007 for designing rubberised bitumen mixtures (using the different rubberised bitumens from Part 2) in addition to the control mixture (without rubber). The fatigue and rutting properties of different mixtures were evaluated. The fatigue testing was carried out using the Indirect Tensile Fatigue Test in the Nottingham Asphalt Tester (NAT machine) equipment and SuperPave Indirect Tensile Test IDT using the INSTRON. The rutting was evaluated using the Repeated Load Axial Test (RLAT) in the NAT machine. Also, the mixture testing included evaluating the stiffness of mixtures and moisture susceptibility using the Indirect Tensile Stiffness Test (ITSM). The results of this work have indicated that pre-treatment of the recycled rubber can significantly reduce the high-temperature viscosity; however, the fracture properties of binders are compromised, i.e. it makes the bituminous binders fragile and hence more susceptible to cracking. In general, the addition of rubber can produce bituminous materials with enhanced rutting and fatigue characteristics. This is especially evident for rubberised bitumen manufactured using very soft base bitumen (200 dmm penetration). The results of the RLAT have revealed that mixtures made using this binder were even more rutting resistant than mixtures made using the hard base bitumen H (40 dmm penetration). Such results suggest that rubberised bitumens produced with a very soft base bitumen can be a very effective option for pavements that are prone to both low temperature cracking and permanent deformation. All test methods and parameters, for binders and mixtures, have proven that the addition of rubber can improve the fatigue and rutting properties of materials.

Most approaches to classical scheduling problems are unable to cope with alternate routes, but simulation is one approach that may be used. Similarly, most computer aided production management systems are unable to handle alternate routes because of the increased complexity in file structure and management. On the shop floor however, alternate routes are used to meet short-term capacity problems, although some managers feel that quality may be compromised and complexity increased. Increased awareness of the benefits of flexibility must now question routing flexibility and subsequently flexibility in operation sequence. Characteristics of alternate routing are stated, and rules for choosing an alternate route for a job are formulated. A simulation model was developed of a simple machine shop comprising up to six machines to process batches of four component types. Setting up times, breakdown patterns and inter-operational transport time are included in the model. Using the simulation model, a number of rules were tested on single operation alternates and partial route alternates. Two rules work well for different purposes. On single operation alternates, a forced ratio rule achieves workload balance while a rule which examines waiting workload achieves the shortest flowtimes. It is shown that balancing workload on partial routes can incur a penalty on flowtime. Good flowtimes on partial routes may be achieved by using a forced ratio rule or by examining waiting workloads.

Since the introduction of synthetic composite materials as primary airframe structures in aircrafts, especially the Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) in the late 1990’s, there has been increased use of these advanced materials that have completely replaced key metallic parts of the aircraft contributing to overall reduction in the weight of the aircraft. These innovative materials are increasingly preferred due to their material properties and better strength-to-weight ratio offering not just weight savings but increased resistance to issues such as abrasion and corrosion. As these composite materials are non-metallic in nature, their behaviour especially in the presence of defects and damage is less understood as they do not follow properties exhibited by metals and their alloy systems. This study thus focusses on establishing methods that could detect these defects and damage in a non-destructive manner such that the inspection systems do not cause further damage to the component. This study is primarily experimental in nature and has been presented in two parts. The first section looks at establishing pulsed thermography as a key technique capable of detecting sub-surface defects and its applicability to detect them. This has been presented by inspecting field representative samples and by introducing commonly occurring materials as inserts during the layup stage of the CFRP at controlled depths to determine the detection capability of the system. The second part of the work presented a parametric low-energy impact study where laminates were subject to modified Charpy and ballistic testing to create barely visible impact damage (BVID). The damaged parts were then subjected to inspection using techniques such as pulsed thermography, thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA), immersion ultrasonic testing, microscopy and laser doppler vibrometer (LDV). The aim was to establish TSA method as an alternative tool to detect surface breaking damage. It was found that pulsed thermography, though capable of detecting subsurface damage, was less sensitive to near surface damage. Further, it was noticed that the TSA method showed a positive response when it came to detecting surface breaking damage created during ballistic impact, thus establishing the technique as an in-situ technique.

This thesis presents an improved understanding of how liquid surface tension controls component alignment with a focus on factors associated with fabrication quality; offering insight into the impact of adopting the novel additive manufacturing route, and to provide means for designers and engineers, who are not intimately familiar with the dynamics of liquid alignment, to incorporate such features into their work. The work is supported by several novel models and methods created during the PhD project. The research objectives were addressed through a combination of experimental work, which established the feasibility of utilising additively manufactured binding sites for liquid droplet alignment tasks, and modelling using Surface Evolver, which simulated component alignment tasks and the effect of imperfect binding site geometry. Droplet shape on circular and square binding sites with varying edge geometry was investigated and significant increases in contact angle of liquid water droplets were observed compared to the plain substrate, with clear benefits observed for structures with actual edge geometries < 90° which achieved repeatable alignment with a mean final component misalignment of 31 µm and 14 µm standard deviation. Simulations showed that as edge radius of the binding site increased the ability to stop droplet motion around the edge diminished. For binding site undercut angles < 90° an energy penalty was observed which provided a barrier to droplet motion down the sidewall. For binding site angles > 90° an energy benefit was observed which encouraged droplet motion down the sidewall. The integration of Surface Evolver generated data into a commercial CAE package for the purpose of an optimisation design study was presented which highlighted the potential of the technique for analysing complex geometries which would otherwise be extremely difficult in Surface Evolver.

As surface engineering develops, the methods of applying coatings and the materials used have improved significantly. One method of coating deposition that is becoming increasingly popular is physical vapour deposition (PVD). This research investigates PVD coatings of single layered systems, dual layered systems and multilayered systems with varying layer thicknesses. The properties of the coatings are investigated along with the dependence of those properties on the coating materials, the coating architecture, the hardness and surface finish of the substrates used as well as the deposition conditions. Tests were carried out on the coatings to investigate their tribological and corrosion resistant properties compared against industry standard benchmark coatings of electrodeposited chromium and nickel respectively. The base materials chosen were as follows: CrN (hard wearing) and Graphit-iC (low friction) for the durable and low friction coatings; corrosion resistant IN625 and chromium for the scratch and corrosion resistant coatings. The results showed that multilayering can be an effective tool for increasing the hardness and scratch resistance of a coating system; however, no benefit was seen in terms of the wear and corrosion resistance of the selected coating systems through multilayering. In terms of corrosion behaviour of the coated systems, the coatings themselves were corrosion resistant, and therefore the system behaviour depends upon the barrier properties of the PVD films. PVD coatings contain growth defects which provide a route for exposure of the substrate to the corrosive media. Irrespective of the film architecture, the substrate surface finish was seen to play a significant role in determining defect density, resulting in a lower defect density for coatings deposited on substrates with a finer surface finish, which resulted in an improvement in the corrosion barrier properties of the resulting films.

A new approach to the dynamic layout planning problem is proposed which provides solutions to highly variable material flow patterns occurring over a multi-period planning horizon and is especially suitable for flexible manufacturing systems. A non-deterministic environment is considered in which there is assumed to be uncertainty in the future material flow data. The performance of the method is assessed by comparing the solution produced by this method with a set of data provided in the literature for which the claimed optimal solution is known. There is close agreement with the stated solution and the result is obtained with a fraction of the computational effort. The computational efficiency is due to a new construction method to generate static layout solutions. This method uses an algorithm in which the number of stages is proportional to the number of facilities rather than an exponentional relationship as found in most other methods. The method also uses an element of forward planning to ensure that early location assignments provide minimum restriction to assignments made later in the procedure. Results of extensive tests show that the new static layout planning procedure produces solutions generally better than existing construction techniques and comparable with improvement techniques such as CRAFT. The execution speed of the procedure makes it possible to solve large scale problems ( >30 )in very short time scales on Microcomputers. Incorporation of the fast new construction method into dynamic layout planning allows decision making concerning when and how to re-layout facilities in response to changes in predicted material flow.

Currently, European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are experiencing increasing pressure to provide high quality goods with customised features while at the same time remain cost effective and competitive in the global market. In the future, manufacturing systems need to be able to cope with constantly changing market requirements. Consequently, there is a need to develop the research foundations for a new generation of manufacturing systems composed of intelligent autonomous entities which are able to reconfigure themselves and to adapt their performance as a result of product and environmental changes. The research described in this thesis addresses the issue by developing three distinctive elements of an adaptation framework for next-generation manufacturing systems. The first element is a capability-based data model for the representation of manufacturing resources to enable self-awareness. The model captures the resources’ life cycle and performance indicators to provide information about the resources’ condition. The second element is a multi-agent architecture for plug and produce and the reconfiguration of manufacturing systems. The resource data model is utilised by the agent society, which is able to instantiate a model to represent a physical resource in the virtual agent society. The shift to the virtual environment enables a communication infrastructure for heterogeneous resources and the application of the digital twin concept. The agent architecture applies negotiation techniques to establish a plan for system adaptation. The third element is a methodology for automated experience-based manufacturing system adaptation. The adaptation methodology is based on previous runtime experience instances to generate adaptation knowledge. The information generated is applied to the current context and part of the agent negotiation which is dynamically executed in case of a disturbance. Collectively, these three elements significantly increase the flexibility and reconfigurability of a manufacturing system reducing the time required for integration and maintenance of complex systems on demand, improving their effectiveness. The developed framework is implemented and evaluated experimentally on a physical, industrial standard demonstrator and using a virtual simulation model. The experimental results confirm a significant step towards new solutions for the deployment of self-adaptable intelligent manufacturing systems.

The conventional life cycle of dies and moulds is not eco-efficient, which shows great potential for the application of remanufacturing. It is of great importance to establish life evaluation technology for remanufacturers to predict the remaining service life of dies and moulds. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of key technologies for life evaluation of dies and moulds after remanufacturing through a thorough review of remanufacture related activities within the die and mould industry. It is proposed that evaluation of remaining service life of dies and moulds after remanufacturing is carried out using finite element modelling. It involves determination of residual stresses induced by repair welding, working conditions for the future operation and life model of die material. Specifically, the thesis is firstly focused on the design of representative die geometry. The geometry is optimized based on the effect of thermal loading and the effect of residual stress due to laser welding. Secondly, fatigue life model was established by conducting thermal fatigue tests and finite element modelling as well. Induction heating based test method was adopted for its capacity of achieving similar thermal shock effects. An energy based life model was derived by taking into account test period. The laser weld characteristics were studied using a sequential experimental design combining orthogonal method and uniform design. Radial Basis Function neutral networks were used to obtain regression models of weld performances for enabling process optimization. Heat source models were also calibrated by achieving sufficient agreement between numerical and experimental weld profiles. Lastly, the effect of residual stress on the fatigue life model was identified and the life model was updated. With close agreement between corresponding coefficients from two curve fittings, the corrected model is proved to be reliable for evaluating remaining useful life of remanufactured dies/moulds.

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining process that was invented in 1991; it is particularly useful for joints difficult to make using fusion techniques. Significant advances in FSW have been achieved in terms of process modelling since its inception. However, until now experimental work has remained the primary method of investigating tool wear in FSW. In this project, two main objectives were set; the first one was to produce a numerical approach that can be used as a useful tool to understand the effect that worn tool geometry has on the material flow and resultant weld quality. The second objective was to provide a modelling methodology for calculating tool wear in FSW based on a CFD model. Initially, in this study, a validated model of the FSW process was generated using the CFD software FLUENT, with this model then being used to assess in detail the differences in flow behaviour, mechanically affected zone (MAZ) size and strain rate distribution around the tool for both unworn and worn tool geometries. Later, a novel methodology for calculating tool wear in FSW is developed. Here a CFD model is used to predict the deformation of the highly viscous flow around the tool, with additional analysis linking this deformation to tool wear. A validation process was carried out in this study in order to obtain robust results when using this methodology. Once satisfied with the tool wear methodology results, a parametric study considering different tool designs, rotation speeds and traverse speeds was undertaken to predict the wear depth. In this study, three workpiece materials were used which were aluminium 6061, 7020 and AISI 304 stainless steel, while the materials used for the tools used were of H13 steel and tungsten-rhenium carbide (WRe-HfC) with different tool designs. The study shows that there are significant differences in the flow behaviour around and under the tool when the tool is worn and it shows that the proposed approach is able to predict tool wear associated with high viscous flow around the FSW tool. With a simple dome shaped tool, the results shows that the tool was worn radially and vertically and insignificant wear was predicted during welding near the pin tip. However, in other regions the wear increased as the weld distance increased. Additionally, from the parametric study that was undertaken for the two tool designs - a dome and a conical shape- the study has found that for both tool designs, wear depth increases with increasing tool rotation speed and traverse speed. It was also shown that, generally, the wear depth was higher for the conical tool design than the dome tool in the pin tip zone. The research concludes that a proposed methodology is able to calculate tool wear associated with high viscous flow around the FSW tool, which could be used as a method for calculating tool wear without the need for experimental trials. The CFD model has provided a good tool for prediction and assessment of the flow differences between un-worn and worn tools, which may be used to give an indication of the weld quality and of tool lifetime. Furthermore, from the results, it can be concluded that this approach is capable of predicting tool wear for different process parameters and tool designs and it is possible to obtain a low wear case by controlling the process parameters.